Has anyone here done three-color photography on B/W with a Speed Graphic or similar?

[jnantz]

i use an old land portrait camera that takes 6 views on a 4x5 sheet and i am able to make tri chrome stereo views without much fuss. RLangham - you might look on ebay to see if you can find some sort of passport camera that uses film that you can still get and that way you won't have to worry about your subject moving between exposures or problems with registration because all the images will be taken at the same time. the unfortunate problem with these cameras is that you will learn the hard way that they are optimized for your subject being 8 feet away or you will end up with picturesque ( read soft ) views. have fun!
john
this one was taken with a graflex slr with cheep gels...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jknan/...posted-public/

[Drew Wiley]

It's not so easy to get balanced exposures; the filters differ. You either have to fiddle with the aperture and risk differences of depth of field between exposures, or risk getting into recip failure territory. Add to this the even bigger fact that the gamma of a film can significantly vary between these hard contrast filters, esp at long exp times.
Then that has to be corrected by independent development of each. That is why I recommend TMX100. If you get the exposures right, you can develop all three sheets together for the same time and get matching contrast. But the point is to get the signature of a very long contrast scale, which can be manipulated later. That is why tricolor exposures did such wonderful things for still life shots when they were dye transfer printed. You need a film with a very long straight line to begin with. But TMX also was engineered with special characteristics to begin with which make it suitable for tricolor work, essentially replacing Super-XX yet even more convenient, with much finer grain.
Most people aren't aware of that fact today.

[RLangham]

It's not so easy to get balanced exposures; the filters differ. You either have to fiddle with the aperture and risk differences of depth of field between exposures, or risk getting into recip failure territory. Add to this the even bigger fact that the gamma of a film can significantly vary between these hard contrast filters, esp at long exp times.
Then that has to be corrected by independent development of each. That is why I recommend TMX100. If you get the exposures right, you can develop all three sheets together for the same time and get matching contrast. But the point is to get the signature of a very long contrast scale, which can be manipulated later. That is why tricolor exposures did such wonderful things for still life shots when they were dye transfer printed. You need a film with a very long straight line to begin with. But TMX also was engineered with special characteristics to begin with which make it suitable for tricolor work, essentially replacing Super-XX yet even more convenient, with much finer grain.
Most people aren't aware of that fact today.

Well, thank you for the advice. I haven't used TMX100 in 4x5" size yet. Certainly I won't try this with Shanghai 100!

[Corran]

Maybe I got lucky, but the wine bottle and flower shot were my FIRST attempt at this process. It's really not that difficult if you already have film photography down.

Same. First try was the photo I posted on the first reply I made.

It's not rocket science. I'm sure you'll be fine.

Good choice of subject btw Vance.

[Drew Wiley]

I think you'd discover a staggering qualitative difference between what optimized film protocol can do and simply winging it and trying to bully it in PS afterwards. Neither approach is necessarily "correct". There's nothing wrong with fun for fun's sake. But people have spent a good part of their lifetimes trying to perfect this kind of thing. That's why it's such a rare skill these days. What has dramatically changed is the ability to scan and conveniently post-register your shots IF you are doing hybrid output. I'm not quarreling with Corran - we're really talking about two different things. By analogy, one can learn the ABC's of developing and printing b&w film and paper in a single day. But why do so many of us spend decades perfecting a relatively simple three bath premise? Same reason buying a ten dollar set of pigments and a brush in an art store does not make one Rembrandt. Goofing around is one thing. Learning a predictable and controlled high-quality color printing regimen is another thing entirely. Regardless of how you do that, what is the point if you don't achieve something superior, or with distinct characteristics, over the routine digital camera options these days? Convenience-wise, we're all dinosaurs. But there are other personal rewards for doing things the hard way.

[Corran]

Being a really good technician also doesn't make you Rembrandt or [insert artist name here]. But that's going down a different path with regards to discussing "art." Anyway, if one has a decent grasp on a predictable exposure and development strategy for b&w film and a decent set of filter factors worked out, this process is relatively simple. I'll leave the handful of people who can or would try making tri-color darkroom prints of some variety to perfect that aspect - I'm not that invested in the process or idea, I just think the color blending effect is neat in this application.

[Tin Can]

Our expert is not Rembrandt

DIY anyway one wants

Then go over to see what color is about https://www.largeformatphotography.i...=1#post1537290

ymmv

[Drew Wiley]

Like I just stated, we're talking about two entirely different things. Anyone who has looked at the results of an accomplished printmaker knows the difference. I'm kinda stuck in another gear at the moment, doing things with optical chromogenic printing people said couldn't be done. But I do very well understand what's involved in making matched sets of color separations, and there is a helluva lot to it. Start with densitometer plotting and see if you can get all three curves almost precisely overlapped the total distance. And that's just getting to first base. But what I really intended to mention is per toys. If someone has a solid studio monorail setup, they might recall that Sinar's first venture into digital capture, called Epolux, involved a 3-color rotating automated turret in front of the lens. Probably nearly every one of those has ended up in landfill by now; but if any are left in storage anywhere, they could probably be acquired for free and repurposed for tricolor film work instead.

[C. D. Keth]

If someone has a solid studio monorail setup, they might recall that Sinar's first venture into digital capture, called Epolux, involved a 3-color rotating automated turret in front of the lens. Probably nearly every one of those has ended up in landfill by now; but if any are left in storage anywhere, they could probably be acquired for free and repurposed for tricolor film work instead.

I noticed while looking for other things that there's an expolux shutter on ebay right now.

[Tin Can]

Read the listing

LOL

I noticed while looking for other things that there's an expolux shutter on ebay right now.